Windows 10: Windows 10: Preparing to Upgrade One Billion Devices

bromanbro

Here is my story. I got a hold of the windows 7 retail version.

So, what I did is change the OEM install to windows 7 retail version and it activated & validate without any issue. Then I upgraded this to windows 10 10162. Even when Microsoft got the activation fixed, my system wouldn't activate. I think windows 10 got confused on what I had previously installed.

What I did is the reverse. I upgraded the Windows 7 oem_SLP and the pre-activation status remained before even signing up with a Microsoft Account. I keep the windows 7 retail on another partition.


As I said before in another post,
I haven't tried doing a clean install of windows 7 retail then upgrading to windows 10. That my next test.

 

Haha, I see I see. Well good, because if MS wants me to input my COA sticker, then they better fix my sticker first >_>

 

It will still see the Windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware, its still there. But the Original key shown won't be a Windows 7 key. It will be the Windows 10 install key. Original Edition won't show as Windows 7 either.

 

The keys on the COA stickers are unique OEM keys. The way I understood it though is they aren't entered into the list on the Microsoft activation servers because they may never be used. It also forces you do a phone activation the first time you use it. This lets Microsoft verify you used it on the PC it shipped with. After that I think it just activates like normal on the next reinstall. I haven't seen anything, other than somebodies speculation, that says that Windows 10 will accept Windows 7 or Windows 8 keys? Up until build 10130 Showkey showed Windows 10 as using Windows 8.1 preview keys. Build 10162 now uses Windows 10 pre-release keys. My windows 10 key changed at some point when I went from 10130 > 10158 . 10159 > 10162. What ever happens when you do the free upgrade, whether you have to read off a key to Microsoft or not, I think you will get a new Windows 10 key. That key will be the one you use to reinstall Windows 10 when the time comes to do that.

 

@alphanumeric

I wanted to try the 32 bit iso version of windows 7 sp1. The oem key activated online without any issue. I could possible have some issue because the motherboad has been replaced under warranty. I am not worried about it since I switched backed to the 64 bit version of windows 7 oem_slp, I most likely will never need to use the key.


On the reply to me.

The windows 7 retail key when I changed the windows 7 oem to windows retail it activated & validated without any issues. When I upgraded the Windows 7 retail to windows 10 10162 preview it wouldn't activate even after switching to a Microsoft account and doing a verification. Do you know why it windows 10 wouldn't activate?

 

If you reinstalled with the correct media and actually used the OEM SLP activation, it will activate automatically against the BIOS SLIC table. If you use the code on the COA sticker, your not using the OEM-SLP activation anymore. You switch to the normal online activation. The BIOS SLIC table isn't used anymore.

EDIT: I don't know why Windows 10 wouldn't activate?

 

Got a Dell Optiplex that had a fresh install of its Win 7 Pro using the COA.

Upgraded to win 10 10162 with no problem - activated automatically.

Showkey shows Original Edition correctly and has OEM:COA at end of line.
Also says OEM Key: Windows 7 OEM marker present in firmware.

So, no drama with this one (so far!).